These three suggestions have been sitting around for some time now so I'm just going to group them together in one short post. :-)

David Laskin is becoming a favorite author (see The Children's Blizzard in the June 21, 2014 post). Next came The Long Way Home: an American Journey from Ellis Island to the Great War which followed twelve men as they immigrated from Europe to start a new life in America. They found work and then came the War ... some volunteered, some were drafted and most were proud to fight for their new country. The War would change their lives dramatically.

The Family: a Journey Into the Heart of the Twentieth Century (also by Laskin) came to me as a gift from Canadian Reader. The author comes from a large family. With the help of cousins, family stories and letters, not to mention archives, libraries, and years of research he traces it back to Shimon Dov Hakohen and Beyle Shapiro in the mid-1800's. Some of the family thrives (think Maidenform Bra), some were Zionists, some died at the hands of the Nazis. As with other books by David Laskin, it was a hard book to put down.

The author of Idiot America mentioned Madison frequently so I asked Constant Reader (who is reading biographies of all the presidents, in order) for a recommendation. Mr. and Mrs. Madison's War: America's First Couple and the Second War of Independence, by Hugh Howard, was the answer. A bit like a journal, or diary, it is the events leading up to and including the War of 1812. Constant Reader was right, it's an excellent read.

Reading Hermit With Dog